Travel News

Distress-signal systems can be lifesavers for 'holiday divers'

By Arnd Petry Feb 20, 2007, 11:26 GMT

Dusseldorf - A nightmare haunts many 'holiday divers': After an hour or so communing happily with angelfish and coral, they make a terrifying discovery. The boat that brought them to the steep seaward face of the reef, far from the coast, is gone! The current carried the divers away from the boat or they were simply forgotten. The nightmare became reality for five scuba divers in the Red Sea off southern Egypt last January. Four are still missing. The fifth managed to swim ashore after several hours at sea. Although two handy emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) systems have gone on the market in recent years, they are too expensive for many dive centres and operators of dive boats, who, experts say, put the lives of their customers at risk in order to save money. Are Red Sea dive centres cutting corners that they should not? 'Yes,' said Josef Lueck, who is in charge of the German web site of the Egyptian dive centre involved in January's accident. Speaking at the International Boat Show in Dusseldorf in January, Lueck noted: 'Most of the centres there don't have the money' for EPIRBs. Lueck said a price war was being waged in Egypt and 'the big centres are having a rough time too.' A lot of small dive centres had entered the market in recent years and 'outdo each other with price reductions.' A dive company would have to invest about 15,000 euros (19,600 dollars) to equip 20 divers with a personal EPIRB by the U.S. company ACR Electronics. 'The price per unit of an ACR AquaFix 406 with a Global Positioning System (GPS) interface is 799 euros,' said Dietrich Klemann, a safety and survival equipment dealer in the eastern German town of Banzin. The AquaFix model without GPS costs 629 euros, Klemann said. Not included is the price of the waterproof holster. 'The device was actually developed for yachtsmen and women and is licenced to a water depth of just one metre,' he added. When a diver switches on the personal locator beacon, it determines the diver's position via satellite and transmits the position along with a distress signal on the international emergency radio frequency, 406 megahertz. Karl Hansmann, a German engineer from Roesrath, near Cologne, has developed an EPIRB system specifically for divers. Called Enos (an acronym of the German words for 'electronic distress call and location system'), it consists of a receiver, which remains on the dive boat, and waterproof transmitters for the divers. The transmitter sends a signal directly to the dive boat, giving the crew the diver's exact position and enabling them to fish the diver out of the water within minutes. The transmitters are waterproof at depths of up to 100 metres. Hansmann sells the system through Searaq, his own company. A complete package for a dive centre, with 20 transmitters for divers, costs about 15,000 euros, he said. Although neither Hansmann nor Klemann have had brisk sales, the recent Red Sea accident could be a turning point. 'Interest is high,' Hansmann said. The Association of German Skin Divers (VDST) supports the Enos system. Owing to the high cost of EPIRBs, however, VDST's president, Prof Franz Bruemmer, opposes making them mandatory. He hopes that the market will sort things out. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

And Also

What's the Truth About Brangelina? - PopEater
no articles available.
- The Tech Herald
Jennie Garth throwing a Garden Party, Zucchini and Eggplant need not apply, the interview
Barbra Streisand Turns Down Massive Vegas Payday - PopEater
Johnny Depp death hoax and similar schemes explained - The Tech Herald

Your Talkback on this Story

Latest Headlines in Travel

Older Talkback

page: 1

Capt. R W OsbornFeb 21st, 2007 - 18:33:25

Having been a diver since 1976 and having been separated more than once from the dive boat by steep seas and stiff winds, I'd have to agree that these devices could mean the difference between life and death for a good number of people. The only drawback I can see is that novices may come to rely on them more than they should and just as with GPS and cell phones on land, become lax about safety etc.
That said, I think the smart dive operator would invest the money to keep his customers safer and the lawyers somewhere else...

Report this comment

Capn ScottFeb 23rd, 2007 - 21:31:50

Why would you wait for someone else to guarantee your safety??? I wouldn't think of diving in the ocean without a safety sausage, whistle, locater light and personal safety flares... After spending thousands on lessons, trips, equipment and such, personal locator devices are nothing compared to what I've already spent... This coming from an instructor, dive charter operator, and ex-coast guardsman...

Capn Scott

P.S. All of my rental gear has this equipment also, other than a system in place to guarantee my customer's safety!!! Some days, I feel that I save lives for a living... but then, this is the difference between me and someone that just does this for the money...

Report this comment

page: 1

Travel News

Distress-signal systems can be lifesavers for 'holiday divers'

And Also

Your Talkback on this Story

Latest Headlines in Travel

Older Talkback

From Sites we Like

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print